Matthew,
Re: " I'd like to know more about why virgin queens
swarm, (assuming that's what is going on). Any suggested
reading?": Honeybee
Democracy by Tom Seeley. The whole book is about swarming
and related behavior.
Also remember that it isn't really queens that swarm (virgin or
otherwise); it is the colony that decides to swarm and they take a
queen with them. That doesn't provide an answer but it shifts the
question slightly. Why does a colony that has recently swarmed
decide to swarm again? The fundamental answer is simple: to
reproduce. But why are they doing it in what seems to be a dumb
and futile way? Seeley has researched this overall topic
extensively, although he probably raises as many questions as he
answers. Check out the book.
Randall
On 4/23/2014 9:43 AM, Matthew Yearout wrote:
Greetings, I've got a few questions. Some of
you might see this twice, since I'm posting to DCBA and
OCBA. A Durham beekeeper has 4 hives, 2 managed and 2 given
to her over the winter. The good news, everyone made it.
The mixed bag, these hives have been swarming on a weekly
basis since late March. The last three were Friday, the
other was last Wednesday. Also, they are not being fed.
Questions:
- I'd like to know more about why virgin
queens swarm, (assuming that's what is going on). Any
suggested reading?
- Suggestions of how to break this cycle?
I went through the hives yesterday. All of them had a good
number of bees, brood and of coarse more swarm cells. Only
one of the hives had eggs, but not enough to share with the
whole apiary. Here's how the inspection went, comments and
advice welcomed.
Hives:
- Two medium frames of eggs and two or three of brood. We
marked the queen and after discussing pros and cons,
removed three capped swarm cells. Added a super of
undrawn foundation for space. This hive was calm, we
didn't even use smoke.
- No eggs, empty swarm cells, spotty brood, lots of
workers and lots of drones. The hive was calm, but we did
smoke it. First impulse is to say there's no queen. But
given the repeated swarming, I wonder if she is either on
a mating flight, or shes just elusive and not good at her
job yet. My suggestion was to check again this weekend
for evidence of a queen. I haven't offered advice on what
to do if she is still not there or hasn't started laying.
I'd welcome suggestions.
- Lots of cranky bees, some drones, no queen found, two
capped and several empty swarm cells, brood but no eggs
and a superseder cell. We pulled the the capped swarm
cells, but left the superseder as insurance.
- We couldn't inspect. At this point the bee yard was
getting amped up and clouds had rolled in. Its a shame,
because below is a picture from the day before. It looks
like some sort of micro swarm under the hive. My guess
was that the queen returned from her mating flight and
went under the hive by mistake. That, or a virgin queen,
unvictorious but still living, fled under the hive. But
those are unfounded speculation, which is why I'm putting
this on the listserv and seeking advise.
Thanks,
Matthew
_________________________________________
ocba mailing list | North Carolina Beekeeping| http://www.theocba.org/
Manage Your Subscription: http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ocba/
|